MOSCOW TEENAGER ADMITS 37 RACE-DRIVEN MURDERS, THEN RETRACTS

Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union, DC
Bigotry Monitor: Volume 7, Number 22
June 16 2007

Artur Ryno, 17, a student of icon-painting claimed responsibility
for 37 murders in Moscow, according to law enforcement sources cited
by "The Moscow Times" of May 29. Then he retracted his confession
but police have so far been able to link him to 21 killings and are
investigating several others, according to a June 14 article in the
national daily "Vremya Novostey."

Ryno originally acknowledged that he had committed the murders out
of racial hatred and he saw as his duty to "cleanse the city" of
migrants. In addition to his accused accomplice Pavel Skachevsky,
18, who has consistently denied any involvement in the killings,
police now believe that other neo-Nazis took part in at least some
of the murders and that Ryno was acquainted with the bombers of
the Cherkizov market, a terrorist act in August 2006 that targeted
non-Russian market traders and took the lives of 11 people.

His first murder allegedly took place on August 21, 2006 near the
Cherkizov market in the company of some unidentified friends. "We
were strolling along and I spotted a fight between five of our guys
and an Asian man," Ryno reportedly confessed. "I ran to help out. I
took out a knife and stabbed the non-Russian several times."

Ryno and fellow student Skachayevsky were arrested last month on
suspicion of killing Armenian businessman Karen Abramyan. Abramyan,
46, was stabbed 20 times on April 16 in Moscow. Ryno and Skachayevsky
were detained on a tram with their clothes covered in blood and in
possession of a bloody knife. A surveillance camera captured the
crime. According to "Vremya Novostei," Ryno confessed to a string
of racially motivated murders after being shown the surveillance
footage. The night before Abramyan’s murder, Khairullo Sadykov,
26, a street sweeper from Tajikistan, was stabbed 35 times outside
an apartment building. Ryno confessed to Sadykov’s murder too, the
report said. Most, if not all of Ryno’s and Skachevsky’s victims were
foreigners and were stabbed at least 20 times, presumably to delay
the body identification process, the report said.

Last year, 53 people were killed and 460 injured in apparent hate
crimes, according to the Sova Information-Analytical Center.